


Nights

by ReminiscentLullaby



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Drabble, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon, previously posted on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:41:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22318018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReminiscentLullaby/pseuds/ReminiscentLullaby
Summary: Demons reveal themselves in darkness, but there is always love to bring light.Or, Gabriel dearly wants to hold the woman he hopes to call his wife.
Relationships: Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Nathalie Sancoeur
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54
Collections: GabeNath Book Club and Art Club Server





	Nights

**Author's Note:**

> Any other writers ever feel an intense guilt for not writing? That's what I've been going through for the last couple weeks, and it doesn't seem to be letting up. So here's another short one-shot I wrote a few months ago. :)

The ceiling was split diagonally by a bar of silver light infiltrating between slightly parted curtains, and Gabriel had watched it drift over the last hour. His eyes fluttered open and closed, his chest tightened and released as a deep sigh passed steadily through his lungs. Every now and then, the hands which laid limp at his sides twitched at the detection of a thought quietly entering his mind, before it would just as quietly go. 

Many nights looked like this, felt like this. Sleep was a luxury he couldn’t bother to fight for. He’d accepted that long ago. This was just like any other night. Once they had been rough, once they had split him apart, and wakefulness had been a brutal and boring curse. Now it might have simply been habit. He was in one piece again.

The woman at his side shifted and he tore his eyes off the ceiling to watch as she turned to face him, still fast asleep, her eyes softly shut. He couldn’t help but smile. Neither had she been a stranger to sleepless nights, and hers were rarely as mild as his were now. Strong as she was – and he’d perhaps known nobody stronger – demons revealed themselves in darkness. At night her tenacious spirit wearied. At first she had apologized for it as though it made her weaker, and he’d had to tell her how nothing was less worthy of embarrassment than humanness, in any form it came, the wakeful, tired, raw, loud and quiet. He offered to hold her if she needed. On some nights she ran away, fearful of his touch, that she needed it, that she was asking too much of him to simply lie there in disordered sheets and clasp her warmly to his chest. 

These nights meandered further and further apart as time passed indifferently to distance them from the genesis of their pain. Memory was not so indifferent, and the worst of nights were marked by questions demanding they know if they would ever heal. Gabriel tried not to care, because as long as he was hers, it didn’t matter. On the nights that closeness was a sufficient remedy, he didn’t think to ask for relief that could be bestowed by anything other than her. 

His hand twitched. A thought had occurred to him, and before it could make its subtle departure, he glanced from her face to his finger. How many nights have passed, he wondered? Too many, and yet, not enough. 

Another restless hour passed and the thought, for once, had not left him. The light had crawled even further across the ceiling, but he hadn’t watched it. He lied there in bewilderment. How, he asked, had this not occurred to him before? 

Gingerly, Gabriel reached and set his hand on her face, and after a moment she stirred, pressed her cheek against its warm touch. Her eyes blinked open to stare into darkness, and then into his inquisitive eyes. 

“What is it?” she mumbled, the sleep on her voice giving it a lovely rasp, like the rush of water. 

He whispered, “I just realized we aren’t married, Nathalie.” 

A thin, dark eyebrow lifted. “What?”

“We aren’t married.”

“Aren’t we?”

“No, but we should get married. I want to marry you.” 

She gazed at him tiredly before a little smile pulled at her lips. Nathalie took his hand off her cheek and moved closer to him until their foreheads nearly touched, and then she set his hand behind her waist. “Oh, do you?”

“More than anything, my dear.” 

“Well,” she murmured with a soft blink, “I think I’d like that.” 

“Yeah?” Gabriel kissed her between the eyes. 

Sighing lightly, she leaned into him, her soft hair pressing into his skin. “You couldn’t have waited until morning to bring it up, though?”

“I wanted an excuse to hold you.”

“You don’t need one.” 

He caressed her spine with his fingertip, which made her faintly chuckle. “I love you, Nathalie.”

“I love you too,” she said. “When do you want to get married?”

“Soon. Tomorrow?”

“We have full schedules tomorrow.”

“Clear ‘em.” 

“Gabriel…”

“Please?” 

“As you wish,” she breathed, words hardly audible as she whispered against his neck. “Good night, my love.”

“Good night, my dear.” 

She was asleep again a few minutes later. Gabriel continued to stroke her back, listened to her breathing and matched the rhythm with his own. 

Ever so slowly, nights were getting easier, though history leaves its gruesome scars. But now for every dark and sleepless hour, she had tonight to remember. Gabriel shut his eyes. He dreamed of light and loving her and pain that ended and time that never did. 


End file.
